1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to information distribution systems. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus and a method for a software rate generator for serving bitstreams to multiple users.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many communication systems the data to be transmitted is compressed so that the available bandwidth is used more efficiently. For example, the moving pictures expert group (MPEG) has promulgated several standards relating to digital data delivery systems. The first, known as MPEG-1 refers to ISO/IEC standards 11172 and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The second, known as MPEG-2, refers to ISO/IEC standards 13818 and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Additional MPEG standards comprise MPEG-4 and MPEG-7, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their respective entireties. Additionally, the European digital video broadcasting (DVB) standard and other related standards are also employed to transmit compressed data.
In information distribution applications, such as video on demand (VOD) and other applications in which a plurality of subscribers receive respective information stream (as close) each of the bitstreams or information streams provided to the respective subscribers may have associated with it a unique bit rate. Within the context of the above-referenced standards, it is typically necessary to tightly constrain the bitstream delivery rate of the various information streams such that decoder buffer underflow and/or overflow is avoided.
Presently, servers are architected to constrain various parameters of multiple bitstreams delivered to respective subscribers using custom hardware and/or parallel processing techniques. However, such custom hardware and/or parallel processing techniques are relatively complex and, therefore, costly.